Black Agenda Radio 04.12.21

Welcome to the radio magazine that brings you news, commentary and analysis from a Black Left perspective. I’m Margaret Kimberley, along with my co-host Glen Ford. Coming up: Gentrification is shrinking Black populations in cities across the country. We’ll speak with a Black trans anarchist organizer who says poor folks need to stop gentrification in its tracks, by taking over every vacant building. And, despite all the high hopes among Black voters, President Joe Biden is already deporting huge numbers of Black immigrants. But first – David Stovall is a professor of African American Studies at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and an organizer with the Peoples Education Movement. Dr. Stovall is deeply involved in the fight to slow down and reverse the ongoing Black exodus from Chicago. He’s author of an article titled, “Engineered Conflict: School Closings, Public Housing, Law Enforcement and the Future of Black Life.” Dr. Stovall explained why he thinks the conflicts affecting Blacks in the cities are “engineered.”

That was Dr. David Stovall, speaking from Chicago.

No big city has seen more gentrification and Black push-out than San Francisco. Nevertheless, black trans anarchist organizer Jemma DeCristo is still there, in the city by the bay. DeCristo is in full agreement with a recent Truthout article on the mostly white and affluent folks that call themselves “YIMBYs.” These YIMBYs say “Yes” to the proliferation of high cost housing in their own backyards and throughout the city. But Jemma DeCristo says what the rich gentrifiers are actually saying when they call themselves YIMBYs is, “Yes to white supremacy in my backyard.”

That was Jemma DeCristo, speaking from San Francisco.

SEE-ON Gurmu is Legal Director of the Black Alliance for Just Immigration, or BAJI, which advocates for the rights of Black immigrants to the United States. BAJI is part of the Black Immigration Network. SEE-On Gurmu says the new Biden administration immediately showed its hostility to Black immigrants